Bueno! Hope all of you in the states are enjoying the season with the changing of leaves, Halloween, and pumpkin flavored everything! I even saw on the Internet that pumpkin spice hair color is a trending thing now. No pumpkin flavored treats here but it is getting colder. It rained the past two days and while I love a good rainstorm, it did make the half an hour walk to school a bit dreary. The weekend before last I stayed in town and decided to explore around my neighborhood a bit. I walked through the streets and was able to get some fun pictures. It was a Sunday so there weren’t that many people out, which made it nice to just stroll around. I’m not used to living in such a big city, and the amount of concrete here is a bit overwhelming. I have enjoyed finding the hidden parts of nature here and there. This past weekend, myself and two other girls from the program hopped on a morning bus from Granada to Malaga. Malaga is on the coast and is where a lot of flights take off. It is not uncommon to fly into Malaga and take a bus to surrounding cities. We arrived and caught a taxi to our hostel. It was my first time booking a hostel this year and I was curious to see what it would be like. Our dorm was on the second floor and had a patio with a gorgeous view! It was sunny on Friday, which allowed for some great pictures. We decided that we were hungry after our travels and left to go find a place to eat. We lucked out with the most adorable restaurant named November. It could easily have been a restaurant in Berkeley. What made it even better is that they served salads! I know it must seem strange for me to be excited about that, but here in Spain, a salad constitutes lettuce and a few tomatoes. We spent the latter half of the day walking around, going to the Picasso museum, and calling it an early night. The next morning we were up early to explore the Alcazaba of Malaga. It was similar to the Alhambra, but a bit smaller and with more palm trees. I managed to snap a pic of a couple getting their wedding photos done! All in all, incredible history, architecture, and views. We ended up going back to November for lunch again and went back to the hostel and took a nap. The evening was spent eating tapas (not free outside of Granada), going to the movies (Boychoir: I highly recommend it!!) and finding a place that sold fresh-fruit popsicles (mango!). The next morning we woke to rain and decided that it would be better to get home sooner rather than later in order to catch up on homework and cleaning. It was exciting to get out of the city for the weekend and travel a bit more. The idea of traveling on the weekend here is so normal and affordable that I can’t wait to see many more places. This weekend we have a holiday on Monday, and thus don’t have school. Portugal here we come!! My roommate and I fly out Thursday afternoon. Call me crazy but I am excited for our layover in Madrid because the airport has Starbucks and if I can have just one pumpkin-spice latte this year, I will be a happy camper. We will be in Lisbon for the majority of the time, with hopes to make a day trip to Sintra if the weather is good. Then it is back to Granada on Monday!
Enjoy fall for me everyone!
3 Comments
Hello hello hello! I’m sitting in my room right now, as class this morning was canceled and I decided being productive would be better than watching the new movie I downloaded the other night. Although class being canceled sounds like a good thing, I’m bummed because it was History of Spain, and seeing as I’m living in Spain, I find it extremely interesting. Reflecting: I had a fun-filled weekend for sure! My program took us all on an excursion to Gibraltar, Seville, and Cordoba. We started off at 9 a.m. on Friday and took a two-hour bus ride to Gibraltar. For those of you who don’t know, Gibraltar is not Spain but actually a British territory. We had to use our passports to get in and it was a quirky place. The mix of Spanish and British influence was evident in the architecture and culture. We walked around the town square for a bit. Truth be told, I didn’t find it that interesting. I was informed that the big attraction that draws people to Gibraltar is the shopping and seeing as I was not in the market for any leather jackets or expensive perfume, I was excited to move onto the next part. We took a few buses (our group is very large!) on a tour that stopped at a few places. The first was at the edge of the territory where the Iberian Peninsula looks out over Africa. Such an amazing sight! It was crazy knowing that the mountains we were looking at were Morocco and that Africa was a mere 20 kilometers away. Then we climbed back on the buses to head to the top of the famous Gibraltar rock to see the caves and the monkeys. The cave had been transformed into a small concert area, which I imagine would be fun to go see a band in. The rock formations inside were insane! It is as if someone had dripped candle wax everywhere. They had also installed lights that changed color every few minutes, allowing for crazy-fun pictures. Then came the monkeys. I didn’t know what to expect when I first heard about them but I was so surprised at how uninterested they seemed in us. Of course, had we have brought food, it might have been a different story. They let us get very close to them, which was an incredible experience. I felt bad for shoving my camera practically in their face like every one else so I tried to back off and just use my zoom. Afterwards we headed to Seville in the evening and made it in time for dinner. I went for a drink with some friends and got to bed a bit on the earlier side because we had an 8 a.m. wake up call. The next day was spent touring the city and it’s historical monuments. Fun fact: part of Game of Thrones is filmed there! It was beautiful and a bit rainy, which I really liked. There were amazing street performers. My favorite was this scary goblin that sat on the street and would scare you if you walked by. His costume was straight from a horror movie! The next morning we headed off to Cordoba. It has to be my favorite city in Spain so far. I loved all of the small alleyways between streets and the beautiful courtyards filled with flowers. I wasn’t able to take my camera with me because it was raining but I plan to go back so pictures will definitely happen. After all that I’m back to school. I’ve been enjoying classes very much. I’m in History of Spanish art, History of Spain, 19th century Spanish Lit, as well as grammar and speaking classes. I also joined a basketball rec team! Last night was our first game and while I was most definitely out of my element, my teammates were awesome and we ended up winning by a lot. I also scored a basket(!), which was pretty cool. I’m looking forward to exploring Granada more in the next couple weeks before heading to Portugal at the end of the month, Morocco next month, and Rome at the beginning of December!
|
Amani P.Last fall I took off for a year abroad. Now I'm back in the states, trying to figure out this crazy thing we call life! Archives
February 2017
Categories |